(pdf) subpoena

(updated below – Update II – Update III) Last night, Birgitta Jónsdóttir — a former WikiLeaks volunteer and current member of the Icelandic Parliament — announced (on Twitter) that she had been notified by Twitter that the DOJ had served a Subpoena demanding information “about all my tweets and more since November 1st 2009.” Several news outlets, including The Guardian, wrote about Jónsdóttir’s announcement. What hasn’t been reported is that the Subpoena served on Twitter — which is actually an Order from a federal court that the DOJ requested — seeks the same information for numerous other individuals currently or formerly associated with WikiLeaks, including Jacob Appelbaum, Rop Gonggrijp, and Julian Assange. It also seeks the same information for Bradley Manning and for WikiLeaks’ Twitter account. The information demanded by the DOJ is sweeping in scope. I’ll have much more on the implications of this tomorrow.

US DOJ subpoenas my twitter account infoIt’s a warm and fuzzy feeling to know that somewhere, far away, people are thinking about you. Last night I received this rather interesting e-mail from twitter: Kessel, Jan-07 11:20 am (PST): Dear Twitter User:We are writing to inform you that Twitter has received legal process requesting information regarding your Twitter account, @rop_g. A copy of the legal process is attached.Twitters chalenge: why?Alexander Macgillivray" />Secret subpoenas* information requests of the kind the Department of Justice sent Twitter are apparently not unusual. In fact, other tech companies may also have received similar WikiLeaks-related requests. But what is unusual in this story is that Twitter resisted.

WikiLeaks Contributes $15,000 to Bradley Manning’s DefenseWikiLeaks has finally made good on a months-old pledge to contribute financially to the defense of 23-year-old Bradley Manning, according to a group raising money for the imprisoned Army private suspected of providing WikiLeaks its most important U.S. releases. But the sum, $15,100, is less than half the $50,000 WikiLeaks originally promised. It’s also less than the group pledged in December, when WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson said WikiLeaks would immediately transfer $20,000 to Manning’s defense fund.

SubpoenaA subpoena /səˈpiːnə/ (also subpœna) is a writ by a government agency, most often a court, that has authority to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure. There are two common types of subpoena: subpoena ad testificandum orders a person to testify before the ordering authority or face punishment. The subpoena can also request the testimony to be given by phone or in person.subpoena duces tecum orders a person or organization to bring physical evidence before the ordering authority or face punishment. This is often used for requests to mail copies of documents to the requesting party or directly to court.

WikiLeaks to Release Secret Swiss Bank Account InfoSwiss whistle-blower and former banker Rudolf Elmer has given WikiLeaks information about bank accounts of more than 2,000 prominent individuals, potentially exposing tax evasion, the BBC reports. The data is not yet available on WikiLeaks, but it was publicly given on two discs by Elmer to WikiLeaks founder and owner Julian Assange at a press conference in London this morning. The data needs to be vetted before it gets released, and some of it will likely be handed over to the authorities. "Once we have looked at the data... there will be full revelation," said Assange. The freshly leaked data covers the period from 1990 to 2009 and concerns companies and individuals from many countries, including the UK, U.S. and Germany, Swiss newspaper Der Sonntag reports. Elmer himself said at the press conference that the data covers info about three different banks and 40 politicians.

US tells Twitter to hand over WikiLeaks supporter's messagesBirgitta Jonsdottir, the Icelandic MP and former WikiLeaks volunteer, who is now fighting a US justice department attempt to get hold of her private messages on Twitter Photograph: Halldor Kolbeins/AFP/Getty Images A member of parliament in Iceland who is also a former WikiLeaks volunteer says the US justice department has ordered Twitter to hand over her private messages. Birgitta Jonsdottir, an MP for the Movement in Iceland, said last night on Twitter that the "USA government wants to know about all my tweets and more since november 1st 2009.On the court order (Gonggrijp)Dear journalists, Yet again I am being inundated with your e-mails, text messages, phone calls and unannounced house visits. (The latter is new, unwelcome and the fastest way to get a non-expiring entry on my media blacklist.) I could easily spend all my time answering the same questions with the same answers instead of taking some time to think for myself. This is not your fault.